There are several among us who enjoy grape juice. There are also a very few minority who enjoy wine. And there are some who cannot drink any wine at all because of its PLD symptom provoking qualities. The good news is if there are any who enjoy grape juice, Navarro Vineyards from Mendocino makes a delightful Gewürztraminer Grape Juice and a Pinot Noir Grape Juice. Navarro Vineyards also bottles Ver Jus which is green pinot noir grape juice and used for cooking where lemon juice or vinegar might be too acidic. Another bit of good news is Grgich Hills makes outstanding non- PLD symptom producing wines. This trip to wine country in California was inspired by the movie Bottle Shock.

The story or how I came to these conclusions are written below. Read more if interested.

I watched a movie called Bottle Shock about how Napa Wine Makers held up against some of the finest French Wines. The Napa Wines won first place in a 1976 blind taste test. This was repeated 30 years later with aged wines and once again, you guessed it, the California wines won. I wanted to meet the winemakers; I wanted to see these wines; I wanted to taste these wines (and spit out. The tasting rooms provide a vessel for this.) We drove through all the top rated wine regions of California. The wine that won the number one tasting for white wine was Chateaux Montelena. We drove a very long distance to taste this wine and to buy a bottle to bring home. The wine tasted very good and the best news I did not get a headache or that hung over feeling from tasting even a sip. I did spit out the wine, but no headache, no hangover. Then according to the movie Bottle Shock, we drove to taste wines made by Gustavo Thrace. These were the worse wines tasted but from Gustavo Thrace Wine tasting room, we discovered that the white wine from Chateaux Montelena that won in 1976, the vintner, the wine maker was Mike Grgich and not Beau Barrett or his father. Armed with this piece of information we went onward Grgich Hills Vineyard.

Grgich Hills was among the best wine we tasted. Once again no headache, no hangover. Grgich Hills uses bio-dynamic methods to grow his grapes. He utilizes the methods outlined by the Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. He has singers sing to his grape vines. Mike Grgich was a chemist. He was very meticulous in his care of the vines, measuring, analyzing the grapes, picking different fields at different times of the year. In California, he introduced stainless steel vats for the grape fermentation. Normally this was done in wood. He had precise measurements drawn for the exact timing for making wine; crushing machines so just the right amount of contact was maintained between the grape juice, the grape skins, and twigs based on the height and width measurements. He introduced California to malolactic fermentation, a slow process. He cooled the fermenting grape juice by channeling water rivets surrounding and sandwiching the tanks so it was a long slow cool process similar to that in baking non yeasted breads also a lactic acid ferment. The advantage of lactic acid ferments or slow ferments are that the acids can be blown off through the lungs. They can be released by the breath. One of the workers on his vineyard attended a lecture about bio- dynamic growing methods. These are demeter methods. The land and the grapes are thought of as a pulsating living being and the growing methods utilize the sun, the moon and the stars to harvest, to treat, and to ferment the grape juice. Many years ago some of the cabernet grapes at Grgich Hills were developing a fungus. All the other vintners from the valley said these vines needed to be pulled out and re-planted and this should be done quickly before they infected all the other vines. Grgich Hills tried bio-dynamic methods with these group of grape vines. They grew certain botanicals and ground these up into the compost mixture that was used on the vines. These vines suddenly began getting healthier. That year Grgich Hills produced some of the sweetest luscious wines ever. Slowly they converted all their vines to bio-dynamic to demeter methods. Grgich Hills is now home to the largest bio-dynamic farm in all of the United States.

My husband found Grgich wine so delicious, one day he exclaimed, " Perhaps we will only drink Grgich Hills wines?"

This is wine that nourishes the spirit. And Navarro Vineyards Grape Juice tastes like sunshine captured in a glass. Or as the famous scientist Galileo said, "Wine is sunshine held together by water."

A phrase that has been repeated in the movie Bottle Shock. We visited the red wine winner from the 1976 wine tasting, Stag's Leap Vineyard SLV cabernet. We sampled (and spit out as is the custom to avoid getting drunk) Stag's Leap Vineyard SLV, Cask 23, and one other. The Cask 23 was the bottle we choose to lay down for several years and perhaps have a sip or two on our 50th wedding anniversary. Navarro Vineyards makes more than grape juice. Their wines were some of the best tasting. I asked the person pouring wine (and grape juice) why their wines tasted so good? He laughed and said they were a true democracy. Before bottling the entire staff tasted the wines and they would vote to let a wine age a bit more, to blend it, or to not blend it all. These were democratic wines, he exclaimed with twinkling laughing eyes. To read a book about the 1976 blind wine tasting try here.
A few more notes on biodynamic wine
I thought is to be the alcohol that is PLD symptom provoking. It could be sulfites that precipitate a headache. What is different about the wines from Grgich is they are bio-dynamically grown using methods by Austrian philosopher–scientist Rudolf Steiner in 1924. He considers the earth, the land, the farm to be a growing living vital body of energy. He was the first to recommend cutting vegetables at certain times when the moon is positioned thus, like in the Farmer's Almanac. It is more than organic. Organic does not use pesticides and herbicides. Demeter or biodynamic methods add more. They allow the vines to be naturally watered by the rain. They feed the vines compost mixed with botanicals (i.e. milk thistle, turmeric, etc.) These botanicals are grown and then turned over into the compost and this mixture is spread around the vines. Many years ago grape vines were attacked by a fungus. Grgich had some withering cabernet grape vines and all were advised to rip out these plants and plant new. Many in France grafted their vines onto American grape vines some that seemed to withstand this fungus growth. Then a few years later this growth attacked American vines. At Grgich they tried biodynamic methods before uprooting these cabernet wine grape vines. And it worked. The methods used lessened the fungus growth; it disappeared and that was the year that Grgich produced some of the best tasting sweetest cabernet. Grgich now owns some of the oldest cabernet vines in California.
There is a better explanation from Grgich. He is now nearing 90. His daughter Violet has added the biodynamic methods to their grape vines allowing it to become the largest biodynamic farm in the entire USA. Maria Thun in Germany knew Steiner and she too has a farm. She is not a scientist but rather a person who learns from experiencing something, much like myself. She tested Steiner's methods and photographed the results. There were onions grown with his methods and those grown not using his methods. She keeps a calendar as to when to plant, pick, fertilize, and seed based on his methods. There are flower days, 4 cycles in all. When I grew a garden I used her methods and it worked. In Virginia in the lumber business, they will not cut a tree unless the moon is in the correct position. If the moon is not correct, the wood once cut, will split.